(from "Chairman's Report of the Forty-Fifth Annual Meeting")

The Scientific Committee had established a steering group to work intersessionally to identify a set of objectives for research on Southern Hemisphere blue whales. This would lead to a more detailed programme of study. If the Commission approved this and indicated that any necessary finances would be made available, the Scientific Committee could then develop a final proposal (that may include other species as well as the blue whale).

Some delegations supported the Japanese proposal in Technical Committee, while others wished to add consideration of the effects on whale stocks of habitat degradation due to pollution, over-harvesting of prey species, climate and global change, and any other factors which might cause declines in productivity.

The Technical Committee agreed to refer this discussion to the plenary for further action, where Japan made a further presentation of its proposal for measures including elimination of environmental factors such as marine pollution that impede the recovery of whale populations, identification and conservation of breeding grounds, and maintenance of a well-balanced ecosystem. Japan believes that very few nations are serious about the proper conservation of whale resources because of the notion of allowing no utilisation at all, and it deplored the fact that there have been very few specific suggestions for conserving stocks or offers of financial assistance.

Australia placed on record its appreciation of the approach taken in general by Japan, and the USA found this an interesting and useful proposal, which was also supported by Norway, Chile, UK, Germany, India, Netherlands and Sweden.

Japan subsequently put forward a Resolution, also sponsored by Dominica, Grenada, Norway, St Lucia and St Vincent and The Grenadines, on research related to conservation of large baleen whales in the Southern oceans.

In welcoming this Resolution, the UK questioned if the focus of the research programme should be solely blue whales or baleen whales in general, a view shared by New Zealand, while Brazil suggested that the 'historic' whaling which resulted in over-fishing was only a few decades ago. The USA recalled its view, supported by Australia and Germany, that the context should be broadened to include environmental threats and habitat degradation. Support was also voiced by the Netherlands, the Russian Federation, Oman, Spain and the People's Republic of China. France received clarification of the use of the term 'fishery' to mean whale fishery. With the broad agreement expressed and taking into account the wider issues raised, the Commission adopted the Resolution (shown in Appendix 5).

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